The Bloc of the Cadets with the Progressists and its Significance

Published:Zvezda, No. 23 (59), March 29, 1912.

      Signed:B. K..

      Published according to theZvezdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1974],

      Moscow,Volume 17,

      pages551-555.Translated:Dora CoxTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2004).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Severaldays ago the newspapers carried the story of a
conference of “independent Progressists” on the one hand, and Cadets on
the other, held in Moscow on March 18.

Asemi-official editorial in the semi-official CadetRech(of
March 21) confirms that the conference Was held and gives it its
appraisal. Even a superficial study of this appraisal is sufficient to
enable one to grasp the carefully concealed nature of the matter and to
realise the disguise which serves to keep up appearances.

Thepoint is that both the Progressists and the Cadets are opposition
groups, and “belong to that section of the opposition which is described
as ‘responsible’”. This is whatRechsays. Hence, the
Cadets cannot help admitting that there are two “sections” within the
opposition: one which deserves the title “responsible”, and another which
does not. This admission of the Cadets brings us at once to the main point.

Byreferring to themselves as the “responsible” opposition, which is
even more often and better described by Milyukov’s celebrated “London”
slogans about an opposition in the possessive

case,[1]the Cadets set themselves and similar groups apart from the
democratic movement, i. e., from the Trudoviks and the workers. Actually,
the term “responsible opposition” is used to describe the
liberal-monarchist bourgeois Centre, which stands midway between democracy
on the one hand and autocracy with the feudal landowners on the other. This
bourgeois liberal-monarchist Centre, which dreads consistent democracy even
more than so-called“reaction”, appeared in the Russian political arena long ago. It has such
a long and instructive history behind it that we must not allow ourselves
to be deceived with regard to its true nature and still less to keep silent
or plead ignorance about it.

ThisCentre became quite clearly indicated in the epoch of the decline
of serfdom. During the interval of almost half a century separating that
epoch from 1905, the influence of the liberal-monarchist bourgeoisie in the
Zemstvos, in the municipalities, in the schools, and in the press, grew and
developed to a considerable degree. The crisis of the old regime in 1905
and the open action of all the classes in Russia gave final form to the
liberal-monarchist bourgeois Centre and embodied it in parties representing
its right flank (the Octobrists) and its left flank (the Cadets). The
separation of this Centre from democracy was extremely pronounced and
existed in all fields of public activity and at all “sharp turns” in
1905–07; however, not all the democrats and even not all working-class
democrats have grasped the essence and the meaning of this separation.

TheRussian bourgeoisie is tied by thousands of economic threads to the
old landowning nobility and to the old bureaucracy. In addition to this,
the working class of Russia has shown that it is quite independent and
capable of taking care of itself; more, it has shown itself capable of
leading democracy in spite of the liberals. That is why our bourgeoisie has
turned liberal-monarchist and anti-democratic, anti-popular, in fact. That
is why it dreads democracy more than reaction. That is why it is constantly
vacillating, manoeuvring, betraying the former in favour of the
latter. That is why it turned counter-revolutionary after 1905 and obtained
a “nook” for itself in the June Third system. The Octobrists (with the
permission and under the supervision of the Purishkeviches) have become a
government party, while the Cadets have assumed the role of atoleratedopposition.

Thedecision of the Cadet conference to permit blocs with the “Left”
(don’t laugh!) Octobrists, and the present “informal” amalgamation of the
Cadets with the “independent Progressists” are links in a single long
chain, stages in the development of the liberal-monarchist bourgeois
Centre.

Buton the eve of the elections the opposition has to cloak itself in
“democratic” attire. The Cadet who is out to catch not only the votes of
the big and middle bourgeoisie, but also those of the democratic petty
bourgeoisie, shop assistants, etc., must stress that he is a member of the
“people’s freedom party”, a “Constitutional-Democrat”, no less! On the
eve of the elections, and for the sake of the elections, the Cadet Party,
actually representing a moderate brand of monarchist liberalism, dresses
itself in democratic finery and throws a veil over its rapprochement with
the “independent Progressists” and “Left” Octobrists.

Thisexplains the numerous contortions and diplomatic subterfuges we
find inRech, its high-flown statements that “the people’s
freedom party will not adapt itself to circumstances”, and so on and so
forth. Of course, all this is merely funny. For the entire history of the
Cadet Party is nothing but a mockery of its programme, nothing but
“adaptation” to circumstances in the worst sense of the term. “Given
different political conditions,” writesRech, “under which the
people’s freedom party would be in a position to voice in the legislative
body its entire programme, the so-called ‘Progressists’ would, of course,
be its antagonists, just as they were at the more acute occasions in the
recent past.”

Thatthe period of the Second Duma was a more acute occasion—that is
something the Cadet gentlemen will hardly venture to dispute. However, not
only the Progressists, but even elements more to the right, far from
opposing the Cadets, were their alliesagainstthe
democrats. Furthermore, in the Third Duma the democrats made statements
that went far beyond any clause in the programme of the Cadets, hence, the
Cadet Party was fully “in a position to voice... its entire
programme” even in a “legislative body” like the Third
Duma! If the Constitutional-Democratic Party refrained from doing so, it is
by no means the “political conditions” that are to blame (don’t say, “I
can’t”, say “I shan’t!”), but the utter alienation of the Cadets from
democracy. The Cadetscould havevoiced their entire programme,
but it was theirownestrangement from democracy,their own
turn to the rightthat prevented them from doing so.

Thearguments of theRecheditorial on the bloc with the
Progressists is one of the numerous examples of theease with which the leaders of the Cadet Party, Milyukov and others, can
lead the few “Left” Cadets by the nose. They feed the Left Cadets fine
words, use flashy catchwords about “democracy” to appease the
Kolyubakins, and at the same time actually Conduct their policy in a purely
anti-democratic spirit, in the spirit of a rapprochement, of merging with
the Progressists and Left Octobrists. The Cadet Party has introduced
exactly the same kind of “division of labour” we see among all the
West-European bourgeois parliamentarians: the Kolyubakins and other “Left
Cadets” speak of “liberty” to the people, while in parliament, in its
practical policies, the Cadet Party is entirely at one with the most
moderate liberals.

“Thenew group,” write the liquidators referring to the Progressists,
“only seals and aggravates the political amorphism, the political
confusion of the bourgeois voters,which is at the root of the
political helplessness of the Russian bourgeoisie.

Thepolitical helplessness of the Russian bourgeoisie is by no means
caused by the “amorphism” of the “bourgeois voters”—only Left-Cadet
illusion-mongers can think so; it is caused by economic conditions, owing
to which the bourgeoisie is an enemy of the workers and a slave of the
Purishkeviches, a slave who never goes further than grumbling and
expressing pious wishes.

TheLeft-Cadet parliamentarians, whether actuated by an idealist theory
of politics or by a vulgar fear of losing the votes of the Left-inclined
voters embittered by the Purishkeviches, may conduct their struggle against
the official Cadet Party by arguments to the effect that it is high time to
listen to reason, recall the programme, take up the cudgels against
amorphism, philistinism, unprincipledness, and so on and so forth, in line
with the usual bourgeois-democratic phrases.

TheMarxists are waging a fight against Cadets of all shades, basing
themselves on the materialist theory of politics, explaining the class
interests of the bourgeoisie as a whole, which impel it towards a
liberal-monarchist programme, towards a rapprochement with the Progressists
and “Left” Octobrists. Our response, therefore, will not be to appeal to
Cadet “reason”, to Cadet “memory”,or to Cadet “principles”, but to explain to the peoplewhythe
liberals are becoming counter-revolutionaries and are breaking with
democrats. We shall not exclaim: Will the Cadets listen to reason at last,
will they recall their programme? We shall say: Will the democrats realise,
at last, what a deep gulf separates them from the counter-revolutionary
liberals—the Cadets? Will those whose economic interests do not fetter
them to the landowning nobility, or to the soft jobs and revenues of the
bureaucracy, the bar, etc., realise that, if the people’s freedom is really
dear to them, they must join the working-class democratic movement against
the Rights and against the Constitutional Democratic Party?

[1]Thisrefers to the expression “His Majesty’s Opposition” used by
P. Milyukov, the leader of the Cadet Party. In a speech delivered at a Lord
Mayor’s luncheon in London on June 19 (July 2), 1909, he stated: “As long
as there is a legislative chamber that controls the budget in Russia, the
Russian Opposition, will remain His Majesty’s Opposition, and not an
Opposition to His Majesty”. (Rech, No. 167, June 21 [July 4],
1909.)